Do You Know What is in Your Thematic ETF?
Part of the ETF marketing machine is launching thematic ETFs with a catchy symbol based on the latest trends. However, not always does the ETF offer exposure to the desired theme as you might think it should. For example, some investing themes may be too narrow and do not have enough established public companies trading […]
Factors to consider before adding a thematic ETF to your portfolio
In the quest to launch successful products, ETF sponsors have ventured into thematic segments of the financial markets. Think robotics, artificial intelligence, fintech, online retail, cyber security, etc. There has been mixed success among issuers, as some of these products have rapidly grown to $1 billion in AUM such as ETFMG’s Prime Cyber Security ETF […]
China A Shares weight increases to 15% in MSCI Indexes
MSCI announced today that they have increased the inclusion factor of all China A Large Cap shares from 10% to 15% in the MSCI Indexes notably MSCI Emerging Markets Index and MSCI ACWI Index, coinciding with the recent Quarterly Index Review, effective August 28, 2019. MSCI’s previously announced decision to increase the weight of China […]
The Next Markets for ETF Disruption? Hedge Funds, Private Equity and SMAs
Hedge funds and private equity are two large markets with huge fees and lockup periods that are ripe for disruption by ETFs, says Matt Hougan of ETFs.com at their annual Inside ETFs conference. Such markets will continue to drive growth in assets in ETFs, which currently account for only $5 trillion of the $150 trillion […]
Multi-Asset ETF Portfolio Best Route for Smaller Endowments, Isenberg Professor Says
Hossein Kazemi, senior adviser to the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association and professor of finance at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, is claiming that many endowments should skip investments in illiquid assets such as hedge funds and private equity in favor of a multi-asset ETF portfolio. Kazemi argues that most […]
ETF.com Award Winners Announced
ETF.com announced its 2014 award winners at its annual banquet held in New York City on Thursday. Endowment IndexTM calculated by Nasdaq OMX® was a finalist for Index of the Year. The Index of the Year award went to the Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Spot Index. Other category winners included: ETF of the Year: Wisdom Tree […]
ETF Investor Psychology
To be successful at anything, requires discipline. In athletics, you must train your body to make certain movements at certain times so that during competition, those movements become second nature and you can perform them without thinking. To be healthy, one must be disciplined to eat right and get proper exercise. And to be successful, […]
Investors in this iShares Frontier ETF face unusually high capital gains obligation
One of the reasons ETFs have been adopted so widely is that ETFs are typically very tax-efficient investments, especially when compared to mutual funds, because their structure typically allows them to avoid shareholder distributions. The operative word in the opening sentence is typically. This year, one particular ETF, the iShares MSCI Frontier Markets 100 ETF […]
How To Invest Like The Ivy League Endowments with ETFs
Seeking Alpha published an article by Prateek Mehrotra outlining how ETFs can help investors build institutional quality portfolios diversified into liquid alternative investments designed to improve long-term risk adjusted returns. The article summary The country’s largest endowments aim to preserve capital while producing income and appreciation with less correlation to the stock market regardless of […]
Smart Beta or Strategic Beta?
Morningstar has put together the following matrix to help clarify the above, that we find very useful in our model portfolio construction:
